It’s only February, and I don’t know about you, but I already feel like I need a holiday!
It’s very nearly two years since we went on our last break abroad, to Tenerife, for a welcome week in the sun. As I remember it, the coronavirus was most definitely a thing in early February 2020, and, while it was concerning, it was just something nebulous that existed in far-off places. But about a week after we returned home, a hotel in the resort we’d stayed in was hit by Covid and holidaymakers were forced to be holed-up in their rooms. Three weeks later we were locked down… and the rest is history.
I love my home in Burstwick, I really do, but sometimes you need to just leave the country for at least a week to feel like you’ve properly switched off from all the stresses and strains of day-to-day life and work. For me, if I’m at home, I struggle to properly down tools and just end up looking at emails and doing jobs if people ask me to. If I’m in Spain, I feel more justified in saying, “Sorry, no can do – I’m in Spain!”
And if you get a rubbish summer, like last year, a “staycation” can be a bit disappointing if you’re after a bit of sunlounger (in)action. (Some people loathe the misuse of that word and insist it should mean “staying at home” rather than “going on holiday elsewhere in Britain”, but I think that’s a battle the pedants have all but lost, no thanks to people like me in the journalistic profession…)
So, maybe this year is the year – although it’ll probably be autumn/winter sun as Omicron kyboshed the idea of a February 2022 break. Until then, I’ll keep on keeping on here in sunny Holderness.
And just a reminder about our “A Thousand Words” short story competition – see page 9 for more information. It’s been great to meet Andrea Burn recently, as well as John Harding of competition partner Seaside FM. You’ve got a just week left to enter, so get cracking!